I spent half my time watching Nanny for Christmas thinking I was watching a Hallmark movie. It just has that “feel” to it. Definitely PG if not G-rated. It has the typical Hallmark trademark of a strong heroine lead who struggles with her job, then falls in love when she’s not looking for it, and typical Christmas fare with a character who needs to stop her Scrooge-like behavior.

Ally Leeds (Emmanuelle Vaugler) loses her advertising job when the CEO of a candy company (Dean Cain) doesn’t like her ad pitch. Friend Tina (Sarah Thompson) gets her an interview with a friend of a friend, Samantha Ryland (Cynthia Gibb), who runs an advertising company, is the mother of two, and is really busy with her husband currently away opening up another branch of their office in another state.

The good news is Ally lands the job. The bad news is it’s not the job she was looking for. The job opening Samantha had wasn’t in her ad company, but as nanny to her kids. Ally needs the job so badly she doesn’t correct the mistake and decides she can use the opportunity to try and pitch her advertising ideas to Samantha. Instead, she finds her new employer doesn’t like to mix home and business and won’t listen to her ideas.

Ally gets along great with Samantha’s kids who appreciate having someone who isn’t as stringent as their mom around. Ally lets them eat fattening foods and lets them roll down the hill. Instead of doing a cold reading of Shakespeare, she lets them act it out in a role-playing situation. Basically, she makes everything fun.

Everything is going swimmingly until Ally runs into Justin (Richard Ruccolo), Samantha’s right-hand man. She leads him to believe she works for Samantha in the advertising company instead of in her house as a nanny. They fall for each other, and that’s where the trouble lies for her. She wants to help Justin with his ad pitch which is coincidentally for the same candy company Ally lost and her former company, and also wants to keep dating him.

Just like a Hallmark movie, Nanny for Christmas can be quite sappy. Also just like a Hallmark movie, the ending is quite predictable. But also just like a Hallmark movie, it lends easily to a Christmas theme. Samantha is undeniably the Scrooge who needs to gain some holiday spirit. The only question left at the end is how far her newfound spirit will take her.